Destitute means without money, home or any means at all. Left destitute, destitute families, utterly destitute.
It is stronger than poor and stronger than homeless: destitution means having no way of meeting basic needs at all, and it is a defined category in British asylum law. The Latin behind it means abandoned or forsaken.
1adjectivedestituteWithout money, home or any means at all.
“When the factory closed, many older workers were left destitute and had to beg.”
destitute is a state.
Latin destitutus means abandoned, from destituere, to leave alone — de plus statuere, to set.
Latin
dēstitūtus
Middle English
destitute
English, today
destitute
From Middle English destitute, destitut, from Latin dēstitūtus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA